I have several Clematis plants that bloomed beautifully last year. As i inherited this garden from the previous homeowner, i am not familiar with how to care for all of the plants. The Clematis plants currently have alot of dead/dry growth on them leftover from last year (and previous years i think). One of the Clematis plants was completely choked off by this growth last year. Do i remove ALL of the dead/dry growth before the plants begin to grow this season? What is the best way to do this? What is the best care for Clematis? I have no idea what kind of Clematis they are...they arent blooming yet, so a picture prob. would not be helpful. ANy help is appreciated!
Beginner needs help with Clematis!
Hi lanysturtle ! If it's not evergreen it's probably type 1 or 2 (or both) - Jeanne or Lily-love will be along to help you, they know their stuff. Do you remember what color the bloom was on any of them?
Personally..if it was me I would wait and see which vines start to leaf out...you may have some pruning group 2's that you don't prune except to shape and keep in bounds and that is generally done after their bloom cycle...If you find vines that don't start leafing out..take your finger and follow the vine down to the soil and prune evenly with the soil and pull that vine out..It's still early in your zone...generally pruning time is when the Forsythias are in bloom /late winter-early Spring or the same time you generally prune your Roses that varies from zone to zone and for me it's around Valentine's day..Feb. 14th!.....that is also the time you fertilize with either some Tomato Fertilizer 13-13-13 or Rose Fertilizer...when they bloom..posts some pics and we can try and ID them for you...you can't really hurt a clematis by pruning even if it's a pruning group 2..it just delays your bloom period till later in the season..Hope this helps...Jeanne
I am positive that one plant was white, and i think the other two were purple...not 100% sure on the purple though. Would a picture of the plant in its current state help at all?
Thank YOu! that helps alot! I posted my previous reply as you were typing yours! I will definitely be able to take the time this year to see which vines will bud, and then do the pruning from there. I will try to get a picture in the next day. On the fertilizing front...since we are such beginners, we were just planning on getting a good organic manure/fertilizer for the whole garden...is that what you would suggest?
Jeanne, thx for the reminder on the tomato or rose fertilizer (I've never given mine any, just all purpose stuff) I'm going to go mix some up for the little fellers right now!
I always top dress all my flowerbeds with a couple inches of composted cowmanure and then a couple inches of plain compost on top of that before putting on my mulch but I still fertilize my Roses and Clematis with the fertilizers I recommended..your Clematis will love you for it and show you such beauty if you do as I said...Jeanne
I do the composted cowmanure & compost for everything in the beds, too - probably why I got as many blooms as I did this year, they definitely like. I'm sure they'll appreciate the extra, too !